You are helping your user set up channel verification for a messaging channel (phone, Telegram, Slack, Discord, or email). This links their identity for verified message delivery on the chosen channel. Use the assistant channel-verification-sessions CLI for all verification operations.

When to Use

Load this skill when:

• The user says "verify me", "verify my identity", "set up verification", "verify my [phone/telegram/slack/discord/email]", or any equivalent identity-handshake intent.
• Another skill is wiring up a channel and needs to bind the guardian's identity to it (e.g., slack-app-setup invokes this skill at the end of Slack setup so the user can prove ownership of the configured workspace).

Do not load this skill for:

• Generic "set up X" intents where X is not a guardian channel (use the channel-specific setup skill instead).
• Phone-CALLS intent (use the phone-calls skill — those are outbound calls the assistant makes, not verification handshakes).

Prerequisites

• Run shell commands for this skill with bash.
• Keep narration minimal: execute required calls first, then provide a concise status update. Do not narrate internal install/check/load chatter unless something fails.

Step 1: Confirm Channel

Ask the user which channel they want to verify:

• phone -- verify a phone number for voice calls
• telegram -- verify a Telegram account
• slack -- verify a Slack account
• discord -- verify a Discord account
• email -- verify an email address

Skip the prompt and proceed directly with the named channel when:

• The user's intent already specifies a channel (e.g. "verify my phone number for voice calls", "verify me on Slack").
• This skill is loaded from another skill that has already established the channel (e.g., slack-app-setup finishes configuring Slack then loads this skill — slack is already the channel; do not re-prompt the user for which channel after they just spent the prior steps configuring one).

⚠️ CRITICAL — point of action: Do not re-prompt for channel when it is already determined. Re-prompting after a parent skill has just configured a channel makes the user feel like the assistant forgot the previous five minutes of setup.

Step 2: Collect Destination

Based on the chosen channel, ask for the required destination:

• Phone: Ask for their phone number. Accept any common format (e.g. +15551234567, (555) 123-4567, 555-123-4567). The API normalizes it to E.164.

• Email: Ask for their email address. The bot will send a verification code to that address.

• Telegram: Ask for their Telegram chat ID (numeric) or @handle. Explain:

  • If they know their numeric chat ID, provide it directly. The bot will send the code to that chat.
  • If they only know their @handle, the flow uses a bootstrap deep-link that they must click first.

• Slack: Offer to look up the user's Slack member ID automatically to reduce friction:

  1. Auto-lookup (preferred): Ask the user for their Slack display name or @handle, then look up their member ID using the Slack API.

     Set USER_QUERY to whatever the user gave you (display name, @handle, or full name — the search matches against all of them). For example, if the user says "find me, I'm @alice", set USER_QUERY="alice". If they say "Alice Example", set USER_QUERY="Alice Example". Do not leave USER_QUERY as a literal <...> placeholder string.

     USER_QUERY="alice"  # ← replace with the actual value the user provided
     USER_QUERY="${USER_QUERY#@}"  # strip leading @ — Slack .name fields have no @ prefix
     
     # Get the bot token from the credential store
     BOT_TOKEN=$(assistant credentials reveal --service slack_channel --field bot_token)
     if [ -z "$BOT_TOKEN" ]; then
       echo "ERROR: bot_token not found in credential store — fall back to manual entry"
       exit 1
     fi
     
     # Search for matching users (paginate through all workspace members)
     CURSOR=""
     MATCHES="[]"
     while true; do
       RESPONSE=$(curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $BOT_TOKEN" \
         "https://slack.com/api/users.list?limit=200${CURSOR:+&cursor=$CURSOR}")
       PAGE_MATCHES=$(echo "$RESPONSE" | jq --arg q "$USER_QUERY" '[.members[] | select(.deleted == false) | select(.profile.display_name == $q or .name == $q or .profile.display_name_normalized == $q or .real_name == $q) | {id: .id, name: .name, display_name: .profile.display_name, real_name: .real_name}]')
       MATCHES=$(echo "$MATCHES $PAGE_MATCHES" | jq -s 'add')
       CURSOR=$(echo "$RESPONSE" | jq -r '.response_metadata.next_cursor // empty')
       [ -z "$CURSOR" ] && break
     done
     echo "$MATCHES" | jq '.[]'
     

     ⚠️ CRITICAL — point of action: Substitute USER_QUERY with the actual user-provided value before running the bash block. A literal USER_QUERY="<query>" or USER_QUERY="<name>" matches nothing and burns a users.list cycle.

     Result handling:

     • Single match: Present it for confirmation: "I found @username (U01ABCDEF) — is that you?" If confirmed, use the id value as the destination for Step 3.
     • Multiple matches: Present the list (up to 5) and ask the user to pick: "I found a few matches — which one is you?" Use the confirmed id as the destination.
     • No matches: Tell the user no matches were found. Suggest they double-check the spelling, or fall back to manual entry (see below).

  2. Fallback to manual entry if any of the following occur:

• Discord: Ask for their Discord user ID, a numeric snowflake such as 900000000000000001. To find it: User Settings > Advanced > Developer Mode, then right-click their own name in any channel or the member list and choose Copy User ID. A username or @handle will not work.

  The bot DMs the code to that user. Discord only permits that DM when the bot and the user share a server, so complete the invite step of discord-app-setup first, and note that a user who has turned off direct messages from server members cannot receive it.

Step 3: Start Outbound Verification

Execute the outbound start request:

assistant channel-verification-sessions create --channel <channel> --destination "<destination>" --json

Replace <channel> with phone, telegram, slack, discord, or email, and <destination> with the phone number, Telegram destination, Slack user ID, Discord user ID, or email address.

On success (success: true)

Report the exact next action based on the channel:

• Phone: The response includes a secret field with the verification code. Tell the user the code BEFORE the call connects: "I'm calling [number] now. Your verification code is [secret]. When you answer the call, enter this code using your phone's keypad." The create command already initiates the voice call. Do NOT place a separate call_start call. After delivering the code, immediately begin the auto-check polling loop (see Auto-Check Polling below).
• Telegram with chat ID (no telegramBootstrapUrl in response): The response includes a secret field. Show it in the current chat: "Your verification code is [secret]. I've also sent it to your Telegram. Open the Telegram bot chat and reply with that 6-digit code to complete verification." If the response does not contain a secret field, treat this as a control-plane error: tell the user something went wrong and ask them to retry from Step 3 or resend (Step 4).
• Telegram with handle (telegramBootstrapUrl present in response): "Tap this deep-link first: [telegramBootstrapUrl]. After Telegram binds your identity, I'll send your verification code."
• Slack: The response includes a secret field with the verification code. Show it in the current chat: "Your verification code is [secret]. I've also sent it to you as a Slack DM. Open the DM from the Vellum bot in Slack and reply with that 6-digit code to complete verification." The DM channel ID is captured automatically during this process for future message delivery. If the response does not contain a secret field, treat this as a control-plane error: tell the user something went wrong and ask them to retry from Step 3 or resend (Step 4). After delivering the code, immediately begin the auto-check polling loop (see Auto-Check Polling below).
• Discord: The response includes a secret field with the verification code. Show it in the current chat: "Your verification code is [secret]. I've also sent it to you as a Discord DM. Open the DM from the bot and reply with that 6-digit code to complete verification." If the response does not contain a secret field, treat this as a control-plane error: tell the user something went wrong and ask them to retry from Step 3 or resend (Step 4). After delivering the code, begin the auto-check polling loop (see Auto-Check Polling below). The DM send is fire-and-forget, so a closed-DM or not-in-a-shared-server failure shows up as the poll timing out rather than as an error here.

After reporting the bootstrap URL for Telegram handle flows, wait for the user to confirm they clicked the link. Then check verification status (Step 6) to see if the bootstrap completed and a code was sent.

On error (success: false)

Handle each error code:

Step 4: Handle Resend

If the user says they did not receive the code or asks to resend:

assistant channel-verification-sessions resend --channel <channel> --json

On success, report the next action based on the channel:

• Phone: The resend response includes a fresh secret field with a new verification code. Tell the user the new code BEFORE the call connects - just like the initial start flow: "I'm calling [number] again. Your new verification code is [secret]. When you answer the call, enter this code using your phone's keypad." The resend command already initiates the voice call. Do NOT place a separate call_start call. After delivering the code, immediately begin the auto-check polling loop (see Auto-Check Polling below).
• Telegram: The resend response includes a fresh secret field. Show the new code in the current chat: "Your new verification code is [secret]. I've also sent it to your Telegram. Open the Telegram bot chat and reply with that 6-digit code to complete verification." If the response does not contain a secret field, treat this as a control-plane error: tell the user something went wrong and ask them to retry from Step 3.
• Slack: The resend response includes a fresh secret field. Show the new code in the current chat: "Your new verification code is [secret]. I've also sent it to you as a Slack DM. Reply to the DM with that 6-digit code to complete verification. (resent)" If the response does not contain a secret field, treat this as a control-plane error: tell the user something went wrong and ask them to retry from Step 3. After delivering the code, immediately begin the auto-check polling loop (see Auto-Check Polling below).
• Discord: The resend response includes a fresh secret field. Show the new code in the current chat: "Your new verification code is [secret]. I've also sent it to you as a Discord DM. Reply to the DM with that 6-digit code to complete verification. (resent)" If the response does not contain a secret field, treat this as a control-plane error: tell the user something went wrong and ask them to retry from Step 3. After delivering the code, begin the auto-check polling loop (see Auto-Check Polling below).
• Email: The resend response includes a fresh secret field. Show the new code in the current chat: "Your new verification code is [secret]. I've also sent it to your email. Reply to the verification email with only the 6-digit code to complete verification. (resent)" If the response does not contain a secret field, treat this as a control-plane error: tell the user something went wrong and ask them to retry from Step 3. (see below).

Resend errors

Handle each error code from the resend endpoint:

Step 5: Handle Cancel

If the user wants to cancel the verification:

assistant channel-verification-sessions cancel --channel <channel> --json

Confirm cancellation to the user. On no_active_session, tell them there is nothing to cancel.

Auto-Check Polling

After delivering the code (in Step 3 or Step 4), do NOT wait for the user to report back. Poll for completion so they get confirmation without having to ask "did it work?"

Applies to phone, Slack, Discord, and email. Never Telegram -- Telegram confirms through its own bot-driven flow, so polling it reports nothing useful.

Each channel differs only in timing and in the sentence you send on success:

Email is slower than chat, which is why it waits longer before giving up.

Polling procedure:

1. Wait one interval after delivering the code, to give the user time to receive it and reply.
2. Check the binding status. Each bash invocation starts fresh, so set CHANNEL in the same block as the command:

CHANNEL=""  # ← MUST set to one of: phone, slack, discord, email
if [ -z "$CHANNEL" ]; then echo "ERROR: CHANNEL not set"; exit 1; fi
assistant channel-verification-sessions status --channel "$CHANNEL" --json

3. If the response shows bound: true (subject to the rebind guard below): immediately send that channel's success message in the current chat and stop polling.
4. If not yet bound: wait one more interval and poll again.
5. Stop at the channel's timeout.
6. On timeout, proactively tell the user: "I've been checking for a couple of minutes but verification hasn't completed yet. The code may have expired or wasn't entered. Would you like me to resend a new code (Step 4) or start a new session (Step 3)?"

A timeout is also how a silent delivery failure surfaces. Code delivery is fire-and-forget, so a Discord user with DMs closed, or a Slack DM that could not be opened, produces a clean create response and then no arrival. Offer resend rather than asserting the code was received.

Rebind guard: When in a rebind flow (the session creation request included "rebind": true because a binding already existed), do NOT treat bound: true alone as success. The pre-existing binding shows bound: true before the user has entered the new code, which would be a false positive. To guard against this:

• Only report success when BOTH conditions are met: bound: true AND verificationSessionId is absent from the status response. The verificationSessionId field is present while a verification session is still active (pending). When the user enters the correct code, the session is consumed and verificationSessionId disappears from subsequent status responses. This proves the new outbound session was consumed and the binding is fresh.
• If a poll shows bound: true but verificationSessionId is still present, the old binding is still active and the new code has not yet been consumed - continue polling.
• Non-rebind flows (fresh verification with no prior binding) are unaffected - the first bound: true is trustworthy because there was no prior binding to confuse the result.

Important polling rules:

• Do NOT require the user to ask "did it work?" - the whole point is proactive confirmation.
• If the user sends a message while polling is in progress, handle their message normally. If their message is about verification status, the next poll iteration will provide the answer.

Step 6: Check Verification Status

After the user reports entering the code, verify the binding was created. Set CHANNEL to the channel currently being verified before running:

CHANNEL=""  # ← MUST set to one of: phone, telegram, slack, discord, email
if [ -z "$CHANNEL" ]; then echo "ERROR: CHANNEL not set"; exit 1; fi
assistant channel-verification-sessions status --channel "$CHANNEL" --json

⚠️ CRITICAL — point of action: CHANNEL must be set to the channel currently being verified (phone, telegram, slack, discord, or email) before running. The empty-string guard ensures a missed substitution fails safely rather than operating on the wrong channel.

If the response shows the channel is bound, confirm success: "Verification complete! Your [channel] identity is now verified."

If not yet bound, offer to resend (Step 4) or generate a new session (Step 3).

Step 7: Revoke Verification

If the user wants to remove themselves (or the current verified identity) from a channel, use the revoke endpoint. Set CHANNEL to the channel to unbind from before running:

CHANNEL=""  # ← MUST set to one of: phone, telegram, slack, discord, email
if [ -z "$CHANNEL" ]; then echo "ERROR: CHANNEL not set"; exit 1; fi
assistant channel-verification-sessions revoke --channel "$CHANNEL" --json

⚠️ CRITICAL — point of action: CHANNEL must be set to the channel to unbind (phone, telegram, slack, discord, or email) before running. The empty-string guard ensures a missed substitution fails safely rather than accidentally revoking the wrong channel.

On success (success: true)

The response includes bound: false after the operation completes. Check the previous binding state to tailor the message:

• If a binding was previously active (i.e., the user explicitly asked to revoke their verified identity): "Verification revoked for [channel]. The previous verified identity no longer has access to this channel."
• If no binding existed (bound: false and there was nothing to revoke): "There is no active verification for [channel] - nothing to revoke. Any pending verification challenges have been cleared."

Important Notes

• Verification codes expire after 10 minutes. If the session expires, start a new one.
• The resend cooldown is 15 seconds between sends, with a maximum of 5 sends per session.
• Per-destination rate limiting allows up to 10 sends within a 1-hour rolling window.
• Channel verification is identity-bound: the code can only be consumed by the identity matching the destination provided at start time.
• Missing secret guardrail: Every flow returns a secret except Telegram's handle bootstrap, which returns a deep link first and sends the code once the user taps it. If secret is unexpectedly absent from a start or resend response that otherwise indicates success, treat this as a control-plane error. Do NOT fabricate a code or tell the user to proceed without one. Instead, tell the user something went wrong and ask them to retry the start (Step 3) or resend (Step 4).
• Revoking verification: To remove the current verified identity from a channel, use the revoke API (Step 7). This revokes the binding AND revokes the verified identity's contact record, so they lose access to the channel. A new identity can then be verified for that channel.

Details

• The BOT_TOKEN retrieval fails (the bash block above exits 1 with the "bot_token not found" error)
• The users.list API call fails or returns an error
• Too many matches are returned (more than 5)
• The user prefers to enter their ID directly

For manual entry: ask for their Slack user ID. Explain that this is their Slack member ID (e.g. U01ABCDEF), not their display name or email. They can find it in their Slack profile under "More" > "Copy member ID".

The bot will send a verification code via Slack DM once the member ID is resolved.